A late-night beach walk in southern China turned into a weeklong fight to stay alive for a tourist who had no phone, flotation device, or food. The 39-year-old man, identified by multiple outlets as Qin Jianping, was walking along the shore in Haikou, Hainan, on May 27 when powerful waves pulled him out to sea, the South China Morning Post reports, citing local media. China Daily notes that Qin had stumbled into the water after slipping on a fruit peel around 11pm that night.
"I couldn't touch the bottom, and huge waves kept pushing me farther out," he says. "Every time I swam toward the shore, the waves pulled me back." Qin stripped off his shoes, pants, and other belongings to stay afloat, eventually clambering onto first one, then another buoy, where he remained for days as ferries that couldn't see him passed by. Starving and dehydrated, Qin says he endured hallucinations and survived by eating roughly 80 small raw crabs he found on one of the buoys, catching them with his bare hands.
"The crabs were only about the size of a little finger," he tells China's Xinhua news agency, per People. "I'd grab two or three at a time, rinse them in the seawater, and toss them straight into my mouth." On the seventh day, two fishermen from Chengmai County spotted Qin and pulled him aboard, per the SCMP. Doctors say he arrived with severe dehydration, festering sunburns, injuries from drinking urine and seawater, and an inflamed digestive system likely caused by the crabs that may have saved his life. Qin lost about 20 pounds during his ordeal. Now recuperating in a general hospital ward in stable condition, Qin has vowed to personally thank the fishermen he calls his "two brothers."
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